


Save the Last Dance

by rangerhitomi



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Clubbing, Human Astral, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-24
Updated: 2015-02-24
Packaged: 2018-03-14 20:41:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3424859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rangerhitomi/pseuds/rangerhitomi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Astral goes to a club with a kid from his biology class and ends up learning the story of how Ryoga Kamishiro and Yuma Tsukumo fell in love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Save the Last Dance

Astral tugged nervously on the cuffs of his oversized black hoodie as he raised a hand and knocked tentatively on the door of apartment thirty-nine.

There was silence as he stood in the hall, rocking back and forth on his heels, before he heard footsteps and the door swung open. Yuma stood in the doorway, wearing tight jeans, an untucked button-down shirt, and a dressy red vest. Next to him, Astral felt woefully underdressed in his hoodie that made him look pitifully small and pale, baggy black pants, and his dangling earrings.

“Come in!” Yuma smiled broadly and opened the door into his small apartment.

Astral stepped through as Yuma shut the door behind him. “Make yourself at home. I’ve just got to wash my face really quick.” Astral nodded and Yuma darted into the bedroom off the living room. He glanced around the modestly decorated living room; the pictures on the mantelpiece showed Yuma and a young man with purple hair in a variety of settings – what looked like two separate high school graduations, skiing, attending a baseball game, in the aftermath of what Astral assumed was a dueling tournament, where they hoisted a trophy between them, both smiling broadly. Astral spotted the gleaming trophy on a nearby shelf, emblazoned with  _World Tag Duel Champions – Ryoga Kamishiro and Yuma Tsukumo._

As Astral gazed at it, Yuma came back into the living room, bringing with him a pleasant smell that Astral didn’t recognize. Yuma grinned. “Ready?”

Astral looked down at his clothes. “Um, I feel… very underdressed.”

Yuma tilted his head and contemplated Astral for a moment. He reached out and touched Astral’s dangling earrings. “These are a nice touch, but I think we can give your body a little more form. You’re a bit taller and thinner than me, but maybe some of Ryoga’s old clothes will fit you. I think he’s got a box he was going to donate. Come here for a minute.”

Astral followed Yuma through the bedroom into the walk-in closet. Yuma pulled a large box off the top shelf and shuffled around in it. Astral took the opportunity to glance around; the room was clean, with a large bed made up with dark purple sheets and more pillows than were probably necessary. Paintings of ancient archaeological sites adorned one wall, while stunning night sky vistas adorned another. A nightstand stood on either side of the bed, with a stack of comic books on one side and a single thick book lying on the other, a tasseled bookmark marking its spot. The closet was organized in two, with clothing of various degrees of dark purples and blues to the left; warm reds and oranges to the right.

Two very different people lived here. But they looked so happy together, Astral thought, remembering the pictures in the living room, and no sooner did he think this then did the fact that there was only one bed in the bedroom sink in, and he felt suddenly embarrassed. 

“Here, try these on.” Yuma held out a light purple hoodie and a pair of jeans. He waited in the bedroom while Astral clumsily pulled his baggy clothes off in the closet and replaced them with Ryoga’s old ones. The hoodie formed to his body, defining his shoulders much better than his hoodie had, but the jeans were a little too tight for Astral’s taste. They were far too straight from the knees down, but he remembered that this had been a big trend for a few years.

“Ryoga went through a skinny jeans phase when we were finishing up high school.” Yuma smiled fondly. “Too bad it didn’t last. He looked really good in them but he said they were uncomfortable to sit in. Plus, older people sometimes mistook him for a girl from behind.”

Astral felt a little uncomfortable at these words.

“Um, but you look good in them too,” Yuma added quickly, correctly interpreting Astral’s shifting motion. “Yeah, the hoodie fits nice. Does everything feel okay?”

“I think so.” The pants were going to take some getting used to.

“Okay, let’s go, then.”

* * *

 

Astral had never been in the downtown district at night before, or even in a club. His mother had always warned him about going strange places at night with people he didn’t trust implicitly. But even though he only knew Yuma from class, he couldn’t help but feel that Yuma was someone he could trust.

The club to which Yuma took him was in a well-lit area along the main street, about three blocks from Yuma’s apartment. It seemed Yuma was a regular here; the man at the door nodded familiarly to him as Yuma explained briefly that Astral was his guest that night, and waved them in without any questions.  Not sure what to expect, Astral followed Yuma.

The noise hit Astral first; powerful guitar riffs and pounding drums came from a stage on the far end of the room, amplified by the speakers placed along the bottom of the stage. Gripping Astral’s sleeve to keep from being separated in the crowd of dancing club patrons, Yuma swayed in time to the music as he walked toward a table, flashing an admiring smile at the purple-haired bassist, whose lips tilted upward in a small smile of his own when he caught sight of Yuma. Astral recognized him as Ryoga Kamishiro, dressed in a flashy, gem-studded purple suit and a low-cut shirt with a fang dangling between his prominent collarbones. As Yuma and Astral sat down, the song finished, and Yuma clapped enthusiastically along with the rest of the patrons.

“Thanks for coming out tonight!” the lead singer chirped into her microphone. “We’re gonna take thirty, so enjoy tonight’s picks from our aaaamazing DJ!”

Ryoga pulled off his guitar and propped it on its stand before hopping off the stage and making a beeline for Yuma and Astral.

“Nice job making it right at intermission,” he teased, settling himself gracefully in the chair next to Yuma.

“I’m always late, you know that.”

Ryoga leaned closer to him and breathed in his scent. “Cashmere woods? Trying to impress someone, are we?”

“I don’t know, I think the lead singer is pretty cute.” Yuma grinned as Ryoga chuckled softly. He gestured to Astral. “Ryoga, this is Astral. He’s that friend of mine from biology class that I was telling you about.”

Ryoga held out a hand and shook Astral’s with a firm grip. “Thanks for helping Yuma pass biology.”

Yuma stuck out his tongue and muttered something about biology not being pertinent to his future as a duelist.

“Is that my old hoodie?” Ryoga wondered, frowning at Astral.

“Yeah, he had this really formless one and I thought he would look nicer in one of your old ones.”

“Oh. Well, it does look nice on you, Astral.” Astral wet his lips and nodded, relieved that Ryoga didn’t seem upset that Yuma had given him his old hoodie. Ryoga started to stand. “I think I’ll get some drinks.”

“No, I’ll do it,” Yuma said quickly, placing his hand on Ryoga’s arm. “You’re probably tired from being up there for so long. Want anything?” he added, glancing at Astral.

“Uh-“ Astral had never had alcohol before. “Just… just ginger ale is fine.”

Yuma looked surprised for a moment, then shrugged. “Got it. Be right back.”

Astral fiddled with the zipper on Ryoga’s old hoodie as they sat in uncomfortable silence for nearly a minute while the DJ announced a slow song before Ryoga made a stab at what he might have hoped was a friendly icebreaker that sounded more to Astral like a death sentence.

“Would you like to dance?”

Astral’s finger slipped off the zipper. “Would I like to what?”

“ _Dance_ , Astral.” Ryoga sounded amused, climbing to his feet once more. “It’s what you do at clubs.” He held his hand out again and Astral’s face turned a delicate shade of pink as he glanced toward the dance floor, where people had paired off and were rotating slowly on the spot. His friend’s… what was Yuma to Ryoga? Partner? Boyfriend? Lover? Well, whatever their relationship, his friend’s more-than-friend wanted to dance with him, someone he had known for three minutes. He wasn’t sure what to do.

“I… I don’t really know how-”

Ryoga sighed and reached down, taking Astral by the hand and dragging him onto the floor. “It’s not hard. I’ll even lead; all you have to do is move your feet alongside me.”

And before Astral knew what was happening, Ryoga had clasped their hands together, placed Astral’s hand on his shoulder, and placed his own hand on Astral’s waist. Ryoga moved his feet with poise, gently pulling Astral along in time to the music.

“I really am grateful to you for helping Yuma in class,” Ryoga said as they turned. “He’s never been very studious, so I’ve been worried that he might have to retake a class or two.”

“It’s nothing,” Astral muttered, staring at his feet as he tried not to step on Ryoga’s toes.

Ryoga watched him for a moment. “Are you uncomfortable dancing with me?”

The answer was yes; Astral was vaguely aware of people watching them, including Yuma, who had returned with three glasses. He finally lifted his eyes. “You… and Yuma seem very close.”

Ryoga lifted an eyebrow. “We are. We have been since we were young teenagers. Well,” he added with a soft laugh, “we weren’t at first. I found him… annoying. Intrusive. Thinking back on it, I’m glad he was.”

“What do you mean?”

Ryoga smiled reminiscently. “I made horrible choices as a youth. My twin sister had been almost killed in an intentional fire and I was disqualified in the finals of a tournament for accidentally looking at my opponent’s deck. I was disgraced, bitter, and angry. If Yuma had left me alone like I kept telling him to, I would at least be in jail or possibly dead.”

Astral’s hand tightened on Ryoga’s shoulder. He didn’t know what to say to that.

“He saved me from a dark place. I owe him everything for that.” Ryoga slid his hand from Astral’s waist as the song ended and led him back to the table by the hand as a lively dance tune picked up, finally releasing it when they reached Yuma, who was halfway through his drink. When they sat, Yuma slid a fizzy glass of ginger ale toward Astral and a glass of lemonade to Ryoga.

“This is regular lemonade and not hard lemonade, right?” Ryoga smiled over the glass as he took a sip.

Yuma rolled his eyes as he sipped at his fruity cocktail. “Oh no, I totally forgot that you weren’t supposed to have alcohol while you’re playing.”

Astral glanced at his ginger ale. It fizzed in his face when he lifted it to his lips, and he sighed as he set it back down. Perhaps he should have just gone with water. Yuma tapped his fingers to the music and mouthed some of the words as he watched Ryoga pour a sugar packet into the lemonade.

“I watched them dump three packets in already,” he said pointedly as Ryoga stirred it up and drank half of it in one go.

“Maybe I wanted four.”

Yuma rolled his eyes again and finished his drink in time for the song to end and another slow song to begin. He perked up. “I really like this song. Dance with me, Ryoga.”

Ryoga looked at Astral. “Is it okay?”

“Of course. I’ll watch the drinks.”

Yuma beamed at Astral as he pulled Ryoga to the dance floor. Astral spotted a few other couples frowning at them as Ryoga tightened his arm around Yuma’s waist and Yuma draped his around Ryoga’s shoulders. Astral couldn’t tell if it was disapproval that two young men were dancing so close together, fingers laced together as they moved their feet around each other, or simple fangirl jealousy that the attractive bassist was dancing so intimately with anyone who wasn’t them. Either way, the two were oblivious to everything going on around them. Yuma said something with a sly grin and Ryoga’s face turned crimson as he muttered something back, which elicited a quiet laugh from Yuma.

They were clearly very much in love with one another, and Astral found himself smiling for them.

As they made their way back to the table, hands tightened together, Ryoga grimaced when he caught sight of a petite pink-haired figure making her way toward him. “That had to have been only like fifteen minutes,” he muttered, motioning to her to wait a moment. She nodded at the stage and held up three fingers before darting off again. He turned to Yuma and Astral. “Well, it seems I have to get back to the stage. Astral, it was a pleasure meeting you. I would enjoy having another dance with you sometime.”

“Likewise,” Astral murmured. His ginger ale stopped fizzing at him, so he drank some of it as Yuma and Ryoga brushed their lips together.

“Oh, and you can have the hoodie,” Ryoga added as he started to follow the singer to the stage. “It looks much nicer on you than it did on me.” He gave Astral a courteous nod before hurrying off.

Yuma smiled after him and held his hand out toward Astral. “Will you join me?”

Astral tilted his head curiously. “Can I ask you a few questions first?”

Yuma sat next to him. “I suppose.”

“He said you wouldn’t leave him alone when you met. Why?”

There was no response for a moment as Yuma stirred the ice in his cup with his straw, frowning at it. “I can’t really explain it. He just seemed so lonely. We had dueled a few times. I believe that when two people duel, their hearts become connected.”

Astral had never heard of that. “How so?”

Yuma tapped his nose gently, brows furrowed in thought. “Well, when two people duel, they give it their all. They pour their feelings into their decks, and through that you can see what that person is like in their heart. I saw his heart through our duels. Even though he told me ‘don’t get involved with me, Yuma,’ I had seen how much pain he was in. So I couldn’t leave him alone, and I felt myself drawing closer to him, and I guess he felt the same, despite him trying to distance himself.”

“He fell in love with you.”

Yuma laughed softly. “I found out later that he’d been hiding his feelings for me since I helped him overcome his hatred for the man who put his sister in a coma. He kept it to himself for two years. I can’t imagine loving someone for that long without telling them.”

“But you loved him back, didn’t you?”

“Of course. I was almost sixteen when I realized it, and before then I just thought he was the closest type of friend it was possible to have. I was worried that he wouldn’t feel the same, but I told him. It took me two weeks to get the courage up. And then…” Yuma sighed, a soft smile playing all the way to his eyes. “When I told him, he didn’t say anything and I was terrified that I might have ruined our friendship, or made it uncomfortable to be around each other, but then when I was about to apologize, he pulled me close and kissed me. And I realized he was crying and when I asked him what was wrong, he told me he had hoped for this day for two years.” He looked up at the stage, where Ryoga was preparing to play. “It was like something out of a movie.”

Astral watched him gaze at Ryoga and smiled.

Maybe someday he would have to duel Yuma and Ryoga, to see what their hearts were truly like.

“Shall we?” Astral offered his hand as the band picked up a sprightly tune.

Yuma grinned as he took it.


End file.
